Poverty is no excuse for murder

THE EDITOR, Madam:

A friend who was visiting said he found Jamaica to be a wonderful country with warm, hard-working and ambitious people. However, everywhere he went and interacted with people, crime seems to be the topic everyone speaks of and the correlation of crime is poverty. Some suggested social intervention is the way out of stopping crime, or by raising the wage structure in the country to get people out of crime or criminal activities.

In my opinion, this is interesting, but is a flawed narrative. Nowhere in Jamaica that we visited, including the inner-city ghettos of Kingston, did he see poverty like those witnessed in places such as Madagascar, Gambia or Somalia.

From what I see, Jamaica’s crime problem is linked to mindset or culture. I noticed that the country has many call centres, similar to those in India and the Philippines, but the rate of cybercrime seems to be higher than in those countries. This cannot be poverty, as in all places the people are employed in admittedly low-wage jobs, but murder or violence associated with this sector differs from Jamaica.

Being poor is not an excuse for crime, as even wealthy nations and people commit crimes. Murder or criminality is a choice, so offering people money or opportunities will not impact their situation if their mindset remains the same. I see chicken farming or pig rearing is often offered to persons as a way out of poverty, but if that person decides to commit murder or a crime, that will not impact his decision-making.

Looking at Rwanda or Cambodia under the mayhem they underwent, their people do not seek to destroy themselves as the people of this beautiful country. They are both countries with poor people, but they learned that murder will not help anyone; no matter what. They remain poor, but their murder rate is lower than Jamaica’s. If it is stealing, I could understand, as being poor you would want what you do not have, but murder is another level.

I believe a change of mindset or culture is needed for our country. My friend’s home country of Ghana admires everything about Jamaica and Bob Marley. The similarities in our way of life and history are one and the same. The difference is, being poor, or poverty, should never be an excuse for having a high murder rate. If so, why wasn’t Jamaica, under colonial rule when all blacks were in poverty, torn apart by murder? They were certainly poorer than we are today.

MARK H